Developing a Sustainable Concrete using Ceramic Waste Powder

The change from a traditional utilization based society to a sustainable society is urgently needed because of the contamination of the natural environment, the depletion of the natural resources and the reduced capacity of the final waste disposal arrangements. Concrete is regarded as an advanced and major construction material which needs continuous innovation and improvement to reduce environmental impact. In the future, the demand for concrete will be increasing with the increase in population. This article presents an experimental study of using ceramic waste as a limited replacement with cement in structural concrete. Ceramic waste deposit, on one side, poses a number of environmental challenges, ranging from air, water and soil contaminations but on another side, it has cementitious properties. Concrete mixtures with different percentage of ceramic waste powder were produced, tested and compared in terms of compressive strength. As a result, the maximum compressive strength achieved with a 30% ceramic waste. The purpose of this study was to examine the performance of cement concrete with different percentage of ceramic waste powder, it needs to be noted that such performance may be varied when the grade of cement or chemical composition of ceramic waste powder will be changed. The long-run performance (after 28 days) of such concrete and especially when used with reinforcement need to be investigated further

Challenges towards renewable energy: an exploratory study from the Arabian Gulf region

Considering the importance of energy for social and economic development, access to clean, affordable and reliable energy has been adopted as one of the United Nations sustainable development goals that all countries aim to achieve by 2030. However, much of the world's energy is still produced from fossil fuels and thus the progress towards clean and renewable energy is slow. This paper explores the key challenges towards renewable energy in Gulf Cooperation Council countries blessed with plenty of oil and gas reserves. The key challenges identified through literature review were ranked using a quantitative approach through the data collected from a selective sample across the six countries. These challenges in order of importance were found to be policies and regulations, manpower experience and competencies, renewable energy education, public awareness, costs and incentives for renewable energy and government commitment. The findings could be helpful to decision makers and government organisations in the region to develop strategies to overcome these identified challenges

Exploring safety climate factors in construction

This paper aims to explore and to make explicit of the existing safety climate assessment tools and dimensions. The concept of safety climate is firstly discussed with a review of different safety climate factors from the published literature. A qualitative research method was employed to explore the safety climate factors through a systematic review using four databases and specific keywords. A total of 68 papers were selected for the screening process. The screening process allowed to select the final 18 safety climate assessment tools and papers consisting of 98 safety climate factors spanning over a period of 39 years (1980-2019). Construction organisations may consider these factors to assess the current maturity level of their safety climate and to develop plans to achieve the required level. It is recommended that the factors discussed in this paper may be validated first before they are incorporated in the assessment of safety climate

Measurement, modeling and simulation of photovoltaic degradation rates

Photovoltaic degradation rates play a vital role in visualizing and analyzing the performance of the PV modules over the long run. A site survey is conducted to calculate PV degradation rates. The results have shown that for the first three years since the initial installation, the degradation rates have remained in line with the manufacturer values (i.e., less than 0.6%), while the next two years the degradation rates have almost increased by 40%. This is due to discoloration of the encapsulant causing the reduction of the short circuit current (Isc). Mathematically, modeling such visual loss factors has not considered so far. The visual loss factor equation is developed and incorporated in the output current equation of the PV module. Further, the I-V curves are simulated and compared with the measured I-V curves. The results have shown an acceptable error percentage of around 0.3%

Challenges towards renewable energy : an exploratory study from the Arabian Gulf region

Considering the importance of energy for social and economic development, access to clean, affordable and reliable energy has been adopted as one of the United Nations sustainable development goals that all countries aim to achieve by 2030. However, much of the world's energy is still produced from fossil fuels and thus the progress towards clean and renewable energy is slow. This paper explores the key challenges towards renewable energy in Gulf Cooperation Council countries blessed with plenty of oil and gas reserves. The key challenges identified through literature review were ranked using a quantitative approach through the data collected from a selective sample across the six countries. These challenges in order of importance were found to be policies and regulations, manpower experience and competencies, renewable energy education, public awareness, costs and incentives for renewable energy and government commitment. The findings could be helpful to decision makers and government organisations in the region to develop strategies to overcome these identified challenges